Lots of June sun, a few hot days–and suddenly everything’s rushing to ripeness.

Even the mango tree has decided to try again for a crop this year.

Judging by how much time the birds spend not coming to the feeder, I’m guessing the hawks in the redwood are a big reason why my fruit has been pretty much left alone. The cinnamon I sprinkled on top of the fence near the peaches didn’t hurt any, either; a squirrel will not step in it, not if it can help it.

The weekend’s project. It will get even softer with age.

Then today, for instant gratification, Classic Elite Chateau: the yarn was thick, the yardage scant, and the needles big.

I ripped out the first attempt at the long-tail cast-on because it wasted a foot or two and you never know when you’ll need to go right down to the end of the skein.

Truer words… (yeah those stitches were getting a little smaller at the end there.)

A skein of superwash Malabrigo to go with the grad student’s cashmere, after she chose the smaller ball of it because, hey, luggage space, and a 24″ circ, her first circular needle and the right size for the hat she wants to make with that Rios.

The single mom chose her cowl and her three-year-old picked his hat. I showed him how you could play hide and go seek with it, pulling it down over my face–he thought that was a great game.

The beaded green silk finally found its way home.

The green hat did not. Not yet, anyway. It will.

A friend was throwing a Relief Society (women’s organization) potluck brunch get-together. She has a beautiful big back yard with picnic benches for a crowd, perfect for a summer day.

Her small house did not have enough space inside for her guest list. I said the June sun was the issue and I was sorry I was going to be missing it.

She talked me into coming anyway, parking close and sitting at her table just on the other side of the window from everybody.

She excused herself from the group and came and kept me company for awhile; one-0n-one is so much easier for me to hear anyway. Cool. So did several other people by turns, and it was much appreciated. I’d brought my knitting and it filled in any gaps. Meantime, her kids, teens to 21, passed by going from here to there in the house.

Plus one young woman I didn’t know. Who saw the work in my hands and on the second time by decided to stop and ask about it.

Turns out she was their niece, visiting before her move overseas Monday for her graduate studies at Oxford.

Turns out she’s a knitter.

Turns out she’d never heard of Colourmart, but now she’s hoping to visit them in person and is quite excited about it.

I told her I’d knit in high school but had had to give it up in college: I simply had had no funds for yarn (she nodded in boy-ain’t-that-the-truth agreement), and it took ten years for me to get back to it. I regret those ten years and would love to make it easier for someone else to keep going; what were her favorite colors?

Was I serious?!

That’s what yarn is for, yes.

And that is how, a year after I bought it, that huge 420-gram cone of dk cashmere I’d hanked and scoured finally got wound up and ready to go. It took…awhile this afternoon. (That big ball nearly qualifies for planethood. The bowl it’s in is platter size.) I’m not giving her all of it and I’m not sure it would fit in her suitcase if I did, so, some for my cowls project, some for her. Whichever one fits in her luggage. I want her to have something that sustains her wanting to knit.

And now it’s finally available to me to actually work with, too.

Thought I’d up the stitch count this time from 68 to 70 but I continued with the 2×2 ribbing.

If you’re a knitter (or were ever taught math in third grade for that matter) you can quickly see where that’s going: seventy is not a multiple of four. Well, duh.

Alright then, why not alternate the pairs seed-stitch style. The variety would be interesting to work on.

The funny thing is how it came out in columns anyway. It will stretch to fit any adult but it stays a bit relaxed for a toddler’s head; I hope little Ray prefers the other one but either way now there’s some choice for him in the matter, a means of being in control of an expressive part of his three-years-long life, and that is always a fine, fine thing.

Then a message came in from across the country, I knew *exactly* who I needed to knit for next, stat, some cashmere leaped onto my needles and it is racing along.

A delayed flight, a late night, but let me just say I had one last skein of deep teal green Malabrigo Mecha that has been trying to jump the queue for a week, telling me I needed to make a green hat. For whom? I have not a clue. And yet it kept nagging at me every single day.

This evening I finally realized that if I’d just given in and started the silly thing this morning it could have been done by now, so now it’s 6″ along. Not done but close.

Then we collected the kid and I’m calling it a night.

(It’s a little darker than this.)

Yesterday’s cowl was for a newly-single mom of an adorable three-year-old and was from a single skein of souvenir yarn bought in Ft. Worth the last time we got to visit my father-in-law before he passed.

I couldn’t match it.

But after some serious stash-diving I came up with this to at least approximate it; I remember, back when I was a young mom I would be halfway through the day before I realized I’d dressed my baby to match me without even knowing it. Again.

Two-by-two ribbing all the way up to give it some serious stretch. It will fit a preschooler’s head with lots of folding-up and it goes comfortably over mine. Kids grow.

Of course, being three and having a mom who’s back in school and will likely soon move again means it’ll probably get lost somewhere before he’s four and make how it was knitted a moot point, but then that would just mean he’d get to choose the colors himself next time.

The point is that in all the shattering losses they’re going through, good memories and a sense of belonging are still being created. They matter.

Ah, they’re so cute at this stage…

And Happy Birthday to my Dad! 

K. made me feel like I was instantly family yesterday, with such a profound sense of love that I was in awe of her.

Tonight I found out she’s on chemo.

(Say what?!)

Again. Apparently inoperable.

(But. But. But we’re just getting started!)

I think we need to get to those lace knitting sessions pronto.

Suddenly her keeping to herself like she did–I totally get it now. That profound offering of love: I get that, too.

I finally learned how to pronounce her name today.

She’s a knitter? I…I… How could I not have known this! She’s so shy and so quiet, but offering her that cowl changed everything in an instant. She crochets, too, but she’d never knitted anything like this. She was blown away.

What kind of… She looked for the right words to ask.

I got it and grabbed my purse. I pulled out a circular needle.

Yes! That! She marveled over knitting needles that were all in one piece like that. Where do you get that?

It was a 4mm/US6 and apparently a fair bit smaller than she was used to. I told her where the nearest yarn store was, or maybe Michael’s, or online?

She did not know how to do it like this, though. Could I teach her?

Be still my heart. Oh honey yes. And there’s a book out there that has lace instructions (lace. That was the word she’d been looking for. English is not her first language) both in words and pictures. I couldn’t resist adding, And I wrote it.

(With credit thoroughly owed to Donna Druchunas for those diagrams and the charting.)

I told her I was giving her a copy next week (or next time, I explained, depending on when my aunt’s memorial service gets scheduled for. Aunt Bonnie cannot leave us without her children knowing just how much their sweet mother meant to my family and me.)

If only I’d done this good woman’s cowl a long time ago. But at least I did it now. We have us some catching up to do. This is so cool.

I knitted this this afternoon, before and after a trip to Cottage Yarns for Rios colors I needed for various people. Who knew I had nearly entirely knitted my way through my stash of navy? C wasn’t next because I didn’t have her favorite. Now I do.

I took this up again after dinner. I ran to Trader Joe’s a mile away to make myself take another break and then got back to it for nearly two hours more, determined to get it done tonight. This one just had to be ready for tomorrow. I’ll deal with the ends then.

Thanks go to the power-line workers who got the electricity restored at our end of the city so I could safely open the freezer and take out the icepack: I couldn’t have done that much repetitive motion without and I have the sense not to try.

Note to self: loosely-spun dk-weight cashmere, shades of gray and near-black plied together, a Colourmart set, 108 stitches, 4mm/US6 needles.

And here it is after spinning out in the washing machine. Nothing fancy, just mindless potato-chip knitting.

I think I like it.

So here’s how yesterday’s turned out. Superwash merino/cashmere/nylon in worsted weight.

And how today’s has started out. Cashmere, at a finer weight and for a larger person so it’s more stitches and a bit slow going. That, and I had a day of Let’s Run All The Errands now that I’m feeling better.

One is for a recent cancer survivor and the other for someone who needs to not feel alone right now. I’m just glad I have this one small thing I can do.